By: Katie Walkley, SFU Student
Doing nothing should be considered as a human need just as important as eating or sleeping. To ease you into a camaraderie with your mind through the art of staring off into space, I have created this playlist that will guide you through the cosmic realm for the optimal zone-out experience. Please listen to these songs in their prescribed order for the best results.
“The Body is a Blade” by Japanese Breakfast
The ninth song in Soft Sounds from Another Planet gently lifts you from your daily struggles. The guitar’s hypnotic patterns seem to spin in circles around you. Meanwhile, Michelle Zauner’s ghostly vocals deliver brutally authentic lyrics that allow you to sit with both hope and melancholy. Using music to access your intense emotions perfectly prepares you for an astral realm where you can ponder your existence in a far-off space.
“Can I Sleep in Your Brain?” by Ezra Furman
Known from her work on the Sex Education soundtrack, Furman is a master of musical storytelling. The specific yet universally felt details make every lyric feel like a punch to the gut. The minimalist instruments and heart-wrenching singing will gently guide you to find a landing spot from the stars in someone else’s brain. However, the genre swap halfway through the song from a slow ballad to punk-style guitar and blaring saxophones indicates that the brain you’ve found may not live on our planet.
“Tapestry from an Asteroid” by Sun Ra
The jazz musician Sun Ra will help you wander through the alien’s brain that you dropped into. In a 1989 interview with SPIN, he claims to have been sent to Earth from Saturn to raise human consciousness. Whether or not you believe his origin story, you will feel his connection to the cosmos when hit with the otherworldly groove of this tune.
“Secret Tongues” by The Moldy Peaches
Now that you have successfully travelled the astral plane, The Moldy Peaches are here to help you descend back to your body. The sweet voice of Adam Green delivering absurd lyrics such as, “just jiggling around like silly putty / and who are you and I?” will keep your adventurous whimsy alive as you take on the rest of your earthly tasks.
After taking your focus away from the urgent matters that were pressing down on you, you can come back and greet them with more clarity. We were never meant to be constantly stressing about work. We need time where we can feel human and vanish from everything that is being asked of us, so that when we return, we can discern what really matters.
